Error or absurdity? A non-cognitive approach to commodity fetishism

Abstract

Karl Marx presented his theory of commodity fetishism as an explanation of the mysterious appearance of social relations in a system of commodity production as natural phenomena. The standard interpretation of this as a failure to perceive capitalist social relations correctly depends on a particular modern sense of ‘natural’. If classical political economy and Marx used ‘natural’ in the Aristotelian sense, commodity fetishism appears quite differently: not as a cognitive error but rather as a manner of living under commodity production, one that is not wrong but absurd, the word fetishism tying commodity production to pre-Enlightenment, preliterate peoples.     

论劳动力商品和剩余价值范畴及其现实意义

剩余价值理论是马克思主义政治经济学的核心内容,它揭露了资本主义剥削的实质,揭示了资本主义产生、发展、消亡的一般规律。正确认识和理解马克思关于劳动力商品和剩余价值的范畴,不仅具有深远的理论意义,对于推动社会主义市场经济的发展也具有重要的实践意义。     

非物质劳动条件下马克思的劳动价值论过时了吗——评哈特和奈格里基于“共同性”的价值理论

哈特和奈格里根据当代资本主义劳动范式的转型提出了非物质劳动概念,并认为在非物质劳动条件下马克思的劳动价值论需要做出修正,进而提出了基于"共同性"的价值理论。本文通过批判性地分析他们的观点,得出以下结论:(1)以"工作时间与生活时间的模糊"来质疑马克思的劳动价值论是对劳动价值论的误读,马克思的"社会必要劳动时间计量商品价值量"是抽象意义的"计量",是对本质的规定,而非具体意义的"计量",它由商品生产与交换的社会过程客观决定,不能以具体意义的"劳动时间难以测量"来否定价值的质的规定;(2)基于"共同性"的价值理论服务于哈特和奈格里主体政治的理论建构思路,他们对价值的解读具有很强的主体性特征,这种价值与其说是商品价值,不如说是政治价值;(3)哈特和奈格里的理论建构方法,早已脱离了辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义,走向唯心主义。因此,当代资本主义的政治经济学批判仍应建立在马克思劳动价值论的基础之上。     

MARX@200

ABSTRACT

The article begins by outlining the philosophic anthropology that Marx derived from his reading of Hegel. We continue by arguing that this formed the basis of his materialist conception of history and his analysis of the political economy of the capitalist mode of production, with particular reference being made to Marx’s theory of value and his account of the economic contradictions of the capitalist system. We then discuss his views on the nature of post-capitalist society, concluding with a critical but broadly positive account of the relevance of his ideas to modern capitalism. Marx, we suggest, should not be regarded as a purely 19th-century thinker, as some recent biographers have maintained.     

Marx,Sraffa, and Surplus: Observations Prompted by Garegnani (2018)

ABSTRACT

In a posthumously published article, Pierangelo Garegnani (2018. ‘On the Labour Theory of Value in Marx and in the Marxist Tradition.’) depicts Marx’s project in Capital as that of ‘developing systematically the theory of Ricardo and [the] implications of social conflict’ implied by Ricardo’s ‘surplus approach to value and distribution’. This paper argues to the contrary that Marx’s theory of surplus value and exploitation differs from (neo-)Ricardian surplus theory in fundamental ways, and modifies Garegnani’s simple Sraffian model to illustrate the distinctive implications of Marx’s theory.     

Searching for New Jerusalems: P.H. Wicksteed’s “Jevonian” critique of Marx’s Capital

Abstract

In 1884, P.H. Wicksteed published a critique of the first volume of Marx’s Capital, the first detailed analytical encounter in English between Marx’s value theory and the new discourse of “marginalism”. In revisiting that episode, this article has three principal objectives. The first is to show how Wicksteed developed his understanding of political economy, as he moved from initially following Henry George’s Progress and Poverty. The second is to examine why Wicksteed’s defence of George necessitated criticizing the Marxist Social Democratic Federation. The third is to show that Wicksteed’s criticisms of Marx were simply incorrect.     

The New Comparative Political Economy

With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s the field of comparative political economy has undergone major revision. Socialism is no longer considered the viable alternative to capitalism it once was. We now recognize that the choice is between alternative institutional arrangements of capitalism. Progress in the field of comparative political economy is achieved by examining how different legal, political and social institutions shape economic behavior and impact economic performance. In this paper we survey the new learning in comparative political economy and suggest how this learning should redirect our attention in economic development.JEL classification: B53, O10, O20, P0     

列宁对俄国资本主义发展的经济史考察及其方法论特色——读《俄国资本主义的发展》

19世纪末 ,列宁继承马克思等经典作家对欧洲 ,尤其是对英国资本主义发展的经济史考察的传统 ,运用马克思主义的基本经济理论 ,对俄国农奴制改革以来资本主义在工业、农业部门的发展进行了经济史的考察和分析 ,不仅阐明了马克思主义的一些基本原理 ,大大发展了马克思主义 ,而且是列宁领导俄国革命的理论和现实依据。 2 0世纪 4 0年代 ,毛泽东对近代中国社会发展阶段和社会性质的考察和分析 ,提出新民主主义理论 ,可以看作是马克思、恩格斯、列宁的这一经济史考察传统的继承和发扬。     

Brexit and the Politics of UK Growth Models

Brexit has reopened and repoliticised the debate about future growth models for the UK economy. This contribution argues that this debate is built around historically specific path dependencies that reflect the particular character of public debate about British political economy, while also suggesting that the debate around Brexit takes place at a very distinctive moment in the history of democratic capitalism in Europe. This combination gives the renewed politicisation a specific and perhaps perverse character. The paper considers how we should approach debates about growth models, paying particular attention to the importance of the politics of support. It suggests that recent debate about growth models has been largely subsumed within the politics of Brexit, which has politicised that debate, albeit through the emergent political economy frames that Brexit has provoked. The paper explores the ways in which the demise of three key props of European democratic capitalism – a sustained period of economic growth, a governing philosophy that subordinated the market to wider social purposes and strong political parties – play out in the context of Brexit and the search for a new politics of support.     

马克思“现实的人”的理论潜力研究——构建中国特色社会主义政治经济学话语体系的尝试

建设中国特色社会主义政治经济学话语体系,需要把中国经济建设的轨迹、经验、规律讲透彻。要做到这一点,关键在于形成和运用具有马克思主义渊源的、区别于西方主流经济学但又吸纳了其思想中有益成分的新范畴。建设话语体系的理论研究的焦点,就是要尝试不断挖掘马克思的具体范畴的深刻内涵,结合实践的展开,赋予其理论价值和现代意义。马克思的"现实的人"的范畴,区别于经典理性选择模型中的"经济人"观念,从关系、历史和发展的视角对人做出的全面分析,使马克思主义经济学具有强大的解释力和预测力,并且能够为解释利他行为、阐明公共目标的确立、理解经济社会的发展方向,奠定坚实的思维基础,具有成为构建中国特色社会主义政治经济学话语体系基础范畴的巨大潜力。     

习近平加强党对经济工作集中统一领导思想研究

加强党对经济工作集中统一领导是习近平经济思想的重要组成部分,政治与经济辩证统一理论是思想基础,以人民为中心是根本立场,党的领导是社会主义市场经济的本质特征,国家经济治理体系是重要抓手,马克思主义政治经济学是坚持和发展马克思主义的必修课,加强党的政治、制度、作风和能力建设是政治保证.该思想为加强党对经济工作集中统一领导、...     

马克思主义政治经济学理论体系的经典引证

马克思主义经典著作是一个整体,研究马克思主义经济学不应只限于《资本论》,应该从《共产党宣言》开始,到《〈政治经济学批判〉导言》,到《资本论》,再到《反杜林论》。马克思恩格斯为其著作写的序言及其书评,是学习马克思主义经典著作不能忽视的内容,许多深刻含义、写作意图、研究方法都是通过这些"序言"和"书评"揭示出来的。马克思完成的著作基本只是"狭义政治经济学",但从马克思主义经典著作的体系看,马克思主义经济学的理论体系是"广义政治经济学"。     

是劳动有价值还是劳动力有价值--兼与关柏春同志商榷

马克思认为资本主义制度下劳动力是商品,具有价值;劳动作为流动状态,本身没有价值,但可以创造价值。在社会主义市场经济体制下,劳动力也可以成为商品,因而具有价值,而劳动本身也没有价值。     

Species Being in the Twenty-First Century

ABSTRACT

In this article, I focus on what is implicitly the more humanist aspect of Marx’s work. That is, species being and alienation. I do so informed by a commitment to pluralism and based on a background in social ontology. I argue that species being and alienation continue to provide insight into the nature of the modern world. They are integral components to Marx’s exploration and constructive critique of capitalism and help to make sense of how potential is shaped for a social entity who can be harmed and who can flourish. However, the way in which one relates to Marx as still relevant regarding these matters can cover a range. I then set out how species being provides useful insight in the twenty-first century at a time of anticipated major social and economic change.     

Considerations on Inequality,Corporate Governance,and Financialization

Abstract

Disjunctures between corporate governance, increasingly dominated by financial considerations, and social inequality have been among the motor forces of current world-wide “populist” voter revolts. This article looks for clues for the relation between economic inequality, corporate governance, and financialization by re-examining the work of Karl Marx and of Adolphe Berle and Gardiner Means. Marx is widely considered, in Japan, to have pointed out that the division of profit into the wages of management and the profit of enterprise is considered as a path to the association. However, this general interpretation in Japan may not be sufficient for capturing capitalism’s contemporary reality. This presentation develops an alternative interpretation of this chapter by combining Marx’s explanation with the theory of the separation of ownership and management proposed by Berle and Means. We then explore causal relations among income inequality, corporate governance, and financialization.     

Will the MEGA2 edition be a watershed in interpreting Marx?

Abstract

The MEGA² edition is a watershed in interpreting important aspects of Marx’s oeuvre, but not all of them. It provides hints as to why Marx failed to complete his magnum opus, Capital, and informs about his doubts regarding the “law of motion” of capitalism centred on the “law of the falling tendency of the rate of profit” he was keen to establish.     

The reception of Marx in France: La Revue Socialiste (1885–1914)

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to provide context to reading, interpreting and using Marx from 1885 to 1914 in La Revue Socialiste, the main journal of socialist movements in France. The article first states some quantitative elements on the absolute and relative importance of the references to Marx and the words “Marxism” and “Marxist” in the journal. The central editorial line of the review – to restore a French descent to socialism and to try to found a socialism not exclusively “Marxist” – is then analysed. This line is maintained over time, with variations, in different national and international contexts. Finally, three key economic themes defining the relation to Marx in the journal are presented. Based on this quantitative and qualitative analysis, a brief conclusion stresses some of the most specific aspects of the socialist reception of Marx in France before WWI.     

Capitalism Unleashed: Finance,Globalization, and Welfare

Andrew Glyn, who died from a brain tumour in December 2007, aged 64, had been a key figure in socialist political economy since the 1970s. His seminal book with Bob Sutcliffe, British Capitalism, Workers and the Profits Squeeze, published in 1972, inspired a generation of political economists. It offered an arresting empirical analysis of the predicament of British capitalism, and occasioned a fierce and wide-ranging debate among socialist economists over its empirical accuracy, its theoretical approach and its political implications. It was one of the first and most important expressions of Ricardian Marxism in the 1970s, emphasising the importance of distributional struggles for the future economic and political development of capitalism.

He was actively engaged in politics and he was always ready to put his intellectual skills to practical use, as during the British miners' strike in 1984–5, when he provided a detailed critical analysis of the economic case being advanced by the employers and the Government against the union. At the same time he sought to understand the trends that were shaping the development of capitalism, and wrote two very influential books, Capitalism Since World War II: the Making and Breakup of the Great Boom (1984, with Philip Armstrong and John Harrison), and Capital Unleashed (2006), his analysis of the recent neoliberal phase of capitalist development.

He will be remembered for his skills as a teacher, his humane and tolerant approach to intellectual debate, and his lasting contributions to our understanding of contemporary capitalism.     

Sectoral Structure and Change: Insights from Marx

ABSTRACT

At the time of Marx’s birth two centuries ago, the Industrial Revolution was well underway, and the economic and social changes which it wrought formed the backdrop to Marx’s own ideas. The advanced economies of the world were then industrialising, yet today most countries are deindustrialising. What light can a Marxist analysis shed on sectoral structure, sectoral specificity and sectoral change in the early 21st century? A Marxist approach is distinctive and valuable in how it approaches these sectoral issues, and the following interrelated aspects are discussed here: classifying activities in the first instance according to position in the circuit of capital rather than by sectors; a non-phenomenological approach to classifying activities; a non-physicalist conception of commodities; underscoring the extent of intra-sectoral heterogeneity; recognising the importance of manufacturing and of industrialisation; and implications for analysing changes in sectoral structure.     

The Political Economy of Brexit and the Future of British Capitalism First Symposium

The political economy of Brexit generates new challenges for the UK’s national business model and for European capitalism more broadly. Two symposia examine the implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in key economic policy areas. These symposia contribute to two main bodies of academic literature: the political economy literature on varieties of capitalism, with a specific focus on the UK, and the political economy literature on key economic policy areas of the EU. This short introduction to the first symposium first outlines the key features of the British variety of capitalism and highlight the main questions raised by Brexit in that respect. It then summarises the main findings of the papers of the first symposium and tease out some common themes.